Raiders fall to East, Hodags
MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS
Brayden Balciar and Saskatoon Damm remained unbeaten in their singles flights Tuesday, but the shorthanded Medford Raiders weren’t able to get any more victories and fell 5-2 in nonconference tennis play at Wausau East.
After missing Thursday’s meet at Rhinelander, Balciar returned to his usual spot at number-two singles and took care of East’s Chueseng Chang 6-2, 6-1 to improve to 10-0 overall for the spring.
Damm, who played in two doubles matches last week, went back to numberthree singles and swept Arjay Yang 6-0, 6-0 to go to 7-0 for the spring in singles play.
The Raiders nearly got a third singles win as senior Quinton Tlusty continues to hold his own while playing each opponent’s top player. In Tuesday’s flight-one match, he took Brett Kohl to a tiebreaker in the first set, but Kohl won it 7-1 to take the set 7-6. It was all Tlusty in a 6-1 second-set win but Kohl won the 10-point match tiebreak 10-8. Tlusty fell to 5-4 for the year in singles play.
Medford was without senior Brayden Machon for the day and, with a nineman lineup, had to forfeit the numberfour singles match to Elliott Harding. Without Machon, the doubles lineup was jumbled.
Dante Axon and Conner Klingbeil filled the one-spot and they were defeated 6-1, 6-4 by Isaac Harding and Jacob Schneider. Brett Lundy and Mason Reimann teamed up to fill the two-spot. East’s Andrew Franken and Sully Hanz beat them in a competitive match 6-4, 6-2. At number-three, Medford sophomores Alex Wilson and Nathan Willman had their closest match of the year, but Chaz Weiss and Ivan Lawler were just a bit too much in their 6-4, 7-5 win.
Medford fell to 5-4-2 overall in dual matches. The Raiders have another nonconference match today, Thursday, when they host Altoona at 5 p.m. They’ll finish Great Northern Conference duals Friday with a 4:30 p.m. make-up date against league-leading Rhinelander and a 4:30 p.m. meet Monday in Antigo.
Antigo (4-2-1) currently holds a 62-52 lead in the standings over third-place Medford (4-1-1). Rhinelander is running away with another league title with 92 points.
Medford is at D.C. Everest Tuesday for a 4 p.m. non-conference dual. This year’s GNC tournament was pushed back five days and is now set for Thursday, May 19 in Antigo. It starts at 9 a.m.
Hodags 7, Raiders 0
Playing without Balciar, the Raiders shuffled their lineup Thursday in their first meeting against GNC power Rhinelander and didn’t find much success in a 7-0 loss.
The Raiders were fairly competitive in the doubles matches. The team’s two seniors, Machon and Tlusty, teamed up to fill the flight-one spots and won five games against Layne Roeser and Joey Belanger, who were both first-team All-GNC award winners last spring. The Hodags won 6-3, 6-2.
Axon and Klingbeil filled the numbertwo spot and nearly won their first set before fading against Charlie Heck and Leo Losch, who won the match 7-5, 6-1.
Juniors Lundy and Damm played at flight three. Rhinelander’s Eli Lundt and Dawson Pontell won in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.
Medford’s extremely inexperienced singles lineup was no match for the Hodags. Senior Luke Ring beat Reimann, a freshman, 6-0, 6-0 in flight one, senior Elijah Evers beat Willman 6-0, 6-0 in flight two and John Currie swept Wilson 6-0, 6-0 in flight three. Medford forfeited to Dalton Fritz in flight four.
